A direct link between chronic insomnia and memory issues

Chronic insomnia disorder, which affects approximately 10 percent of adults, has a direct negative impact on cognitive function of people aged 45 and over, independent of the effect of other health issues.

This is the primary finding from an analysis of sleep data from the pan-Canadian cohort of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

The analysis was conducted by a research team that included postdoctoral researcher Nathan Cross and his advisor Thanh Dang-Vu, both of whom are affiliated with Concordia University’s PERFORM Centre and the Centre de recherche of the Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (CRIUGM) of the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal. Dang-Vu is also an associate professor in the department of Health, Kinesiology and Applied Physiology and the Concordia University Research Chair in Sleep, Neuroimaging and Cognitive Health and a clinical associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Université de Montréal.

“A number of studies have shown links between insomnia and cognitive problems,” explains Dang-Vu. “However, many of these studies were conducted on a limited number of individuals suffering from insomnia, and the results are not always consistent from study to study. Other studies do not distinguish between chronic insomnia disorder and the simple presence of symptoms. Chronic insomnia is often associated with other health issues (such as anxiety or chronic pain) that can also affect cognitive function, which makes it difficult to determine the direct contribution of insomnia to these cognitive problems. The purpose of our study was therefore to determine the precise link between chronic insomnia and cognitive function in a large sample of middle-aged and elderly people while also accounting for the possible effect of these other health issues.”

Source: Thanh Dang-Vu